Material & Chemical

Intense transformations are changing the chemical industry. Development of mathematical models describing physic-chemical interaction and availability of high performance computing resources have boosted Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) diffusion. It can answer the challenging questions left after the initial design phase of process simulation, resolving in 3D space the underlying physics and coupled chemistry in a more detailed manner, focusing on the local effects of flow and heat transfer on mass transfer and chemical reactions.

A lot of sector can exploit this approach: from cement, glass, steel to refining, from pharmaceutical to food and beverage, pulp & paper. Other examples can be found when dealing with multi-phase flows: cases like bubble columns, stirred tank reactors, fluidized bed reactors and many other processing equipment present flows with two or more phases and concomitant inter phase mass exchange and heat transfer. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation applied on these context is very challenging as well as very promising: different approaches are available, such as:

Discrete Element Model (DEM)

Lagrangian multi-phase model (LMP)

Eulerian multi-phase model (EMP)

Volume of Fluid (VOF)

To accurately model chemical reactions the inherent coupling with other transport phenomena like fluid flow and mass & heat transfer has to be taken into account. A good understanding of these interactions is essential in design of flow and batch reactors, burners, furnaces, flares etc.

Finally, also pollution/contaminant monitoring and control is becoming more and more important, since of relevant environmental concern.

Heat is a fundamental parameter when dealing with design. There is great number of applications interested in heat transfer, to mention a few:

Heat flux applied to structures to avoid fusion

Closed rooms temperature control

Convective heat transfers between two fluids without phase switch

Thermal shock due to turbulent fluctuations in structures

A lot of modern human activities affect environment and, consequently, people health. Beside working on reducing pollutant impact on surrounding context, it is also important to constantly monitor how these pollutants diffuse from their sources and spread into the local area. Pollutant concentration can be simulated in all its configurations: from water pipes to open natural environments arriving to rivers with no limits on the pollutant flow and on the physics.

Flow through pipes and fluids transport is very common in modern industry world. In order to regulate such systems, valves and pumps are always used. Controlling this type of tools is fundamental when designing and calculating new systems, in order to match customer needs and comfort requirements.